Light-director



H. M. EARLE, A. vAUGEorjSfANpigZFJCABSON' LIGHT mREcTo'R.:;j APPucATloN FILED MAY 10. :9"2tfq- 1,370,7' 95. -Y Patented Mar. 8,1921.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HOWARD MILTON EARLE, ALEXANDER VAUGEOIS, AND FRED CARSTON, OF DRUID,

SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA.

LIGHT-DIRECTOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 8, 1921,.

To all rwhom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HOWARD MrL'roN EARLE, a subject of the King of Great Britain, ALEXANDER VAUGEOIS, a citizen of the United States, and FRED CARs'roN, a citizen of the United States all residing at Druid, in the Province ofV askatchewan, Canada, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Light-Directors, of which the following is the speciication.

Our invention relates to improvements in light directors for automobiles, and the object of the invention is to provide means for automatically turning the head lights of la car as a car passes around a curve so that the rays of light will cover the whole path of travel of the machine in a similar way as it does when the automobile is traveling directly ahead, and it consists essentially of the arrangement and construction .of parts as hereinafter more particularly explained.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of an automobile intermediately broken away of its width and showing our light directing device applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the part shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional detail of the head light turning mechanism taken on line 3 3, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a sectional plan view taken on line 4-4, Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a sectional detail of a ball and socket connection employed in our device.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in each figure.

l indicates the front axle of an automobile provided with the usual forked ends 2 and 3 in which are journaled the spindle bodies 4 and 5 according to common practice and on the spindles of which are mounted the front wheels 6 and 7 of the automobile. 8 and 9 indicate the spindle arms extending rearwardly from the spindle body which armsare connected together by the distance rod 10. 11 and 12 are sleeves secured upon the distance rod in proximity to each spindle arm 8 and 9. 13 and 14 indicate rods which are rigidly secured at their lower ends to the sleeves 11 and 12. 15 and 16 indicate balls formed on the rods 13 and 14 at their upper end. 17 and 18 indicate rods, each provided with socket members 19 and 20 in which the ball ends of the vertical rods 13 and 14 fit. The socket mem bers 19 and 2O are secured together thereon by means of bolts 21. The rods 17 and 18 are provided intermediately of their length with adjustable enlargements 23 and 24.

25 and 26 indicate the head lights. 27 and 28 indicate arms extending from each side of the radiator 29 of the automobile and which form the bearing supports for the vertical spindles 30 of the head lights. These spindles are supported in the usual manner which is common practice and may be provided with ball bearings to allow of their free turning movementl within the arms 27 and 28. 31 indicate rods which are provided at their outer ends each witha universal joint 32 for connecting them to the rods 17 and 18. The construction of this universal joint connection is hereinafter described. The opposite end of each rod 31 is provided with an eye 33 having an internal tongue 34 extending into a key groove 35 formed in each spindle 30. The eyes 33 are secured in position by a securing nut 36. 37 and 38 indicate tension springs connecting the rods 31 to the rods 17 and 18. The universal joints 32 comprise a center member 39 which is in the form of a disk provided with a central perforation 40 through which the rod 17 or 18 slidably extends, the enlargement 23 and 24 of the rods 17 and 18 bearing against the outer face of each disk 39. The disk 39 is also provided with trunnions 41 and 42 extending from the diametrically opposite joints in a horizontal direction. 43 indicates an annular member provided with trunnions 44 and 45 extending in a vertical direction and with bearings 46 and 47 over the trunnions 41 and 42. 48 is a fork provided with end bearings 49 and 50 for the trunnions 44 and 45. The rods 31 are offset intermediately of their length at 51, the opposite end of the rod being .provided with the eye 33 hereinbefore described. 52 is an arm depending from each bearing arm 27 and 28. 53 is an adjustable screw extending through each arm 52 and with which the rod 51 contacts when in the normal position. Having described the principal parts in our invention we will briey describe the operation of the same. ahead it assumes the position shown in the drawing. When the car is turned in the right or the direction indicated by the ar- When the car is driving straight Va5 the head light 26 to direct its rays outward, the headf lightj25being unaffected by this row, the distance rod is thrown in the opposite direction to the arrow as the front wheel 6 swings 1n a rearward direction. By

this movement of the distance rod 10,- the Y hand rod 31. The enlargement 24: by the same operation is simultaneously carried away from the center member of the universal coupling of the rod 31 on the right hand side of the machine. The pressure of the enlargement 23 `against the center member 39 of the left hand coupling swings the V,rear end oifV the rod 31 in an inward direction so that the headlight 25 which' isy controlled thereby is swung into a position to ydirect its rays outward fromthe car so as to widen the light field to follow the direction which the car is taking around the curve. The head light 26 is stationary during this operation for the reason that the enlargement 24 as above described merely draws' away from the center member 39 of the coupling at the right hand side of the machine.

`Then the car is'turning in the opposite di# rection to the arrow the reverse or' the above operation Vtakes place, that is to say, the en- ,largement23'draws away from the center coupling member on` the left hand side of the machine and the enlargement V24: 4bears .against the center coupling member on the right hand side of the machine so as to turn operation. It will be readily seen that when the enlargement 23 1s drawnv away from the center member of the `universal joint, that the stop `screw serves to positively hold the rod 3 1 of theleft hand side of the machine from moving outward. Similarly when the `enlargement 2e draws away from the center member of lthe ,right hand universal coupling the stop screw prevents the outward movement of the left hand rod 31. Vhen the enlargements 23 and 24 are drawn awa from the coupling` member the springs 3( and 38 are pulled into tension and serve to carry the parts back to their normal position when the car again moves in the straight ahead direction, Y l

F rom this description it will be seen that we have devised a very simple device whereby the head lights'oi1 an automobile may be directed so as to increase the lield of view of the driver se that he has a clear view directly ahead of the wheels no matter in what position they are 'turned and in what direction they are traveling. l

lWhat we claim as our invention is- In an automobile, the combination with the ldistance rod and bearing brackets located a't each side of the car and a head light spindle journaled in each of;V such brackets, of standards extendingV upward.

from each end otl the distance rod, an arm entendingfrom each headlight spindle, a

rod extending horizontally from each standardV and having a ball and socket connection thereto,A a gimbal joint carried by the arm extending from the headlight spindle and through the center of which the aforesaid rods freely extend, Vafshoulder on each of said rods, a spring for holding such shoulder against the Acentral portion of: the gim-l bal, a bracket extending from each headlight spindle bearing bracket and located onV the outer side thereof, and a set screw eX- Vtending through-.such bracket against the outer side of the headlight spindle arm.V

HOWARD MILTON VEARLE. ALEXANDER vAUGEoIs. Y FRED cAnsToN. ,Y 

